UK's Blair warns of Labour 'annihilation' over left surge

Former British prime minister Tony Blair appealed to members of his Labour party to prevent a left-wing socialist candidate being elected its new leader, warning of electoral "annihilation".
 
The bearded Jeremy Corbyn has ridden a surge of support from young people and new Labour supporters to move from being a rank outsider to the frontrunner to succeed Ed Miliband, who resigned after losing May's general election to Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives.
 
Blair, who was in power from 1997 to 2007 and is remembered for leading the party to landslide victories although his legacy was soured by the unpopular Iraq war, said his party was at risk of "self-destruction" if the anti-austerity Corbyn side won.
 
"The Labour party is in danger more mortal today than at any point in the over 100 years of its existence," Blair wrote in a fiery article in the Guardian.
 
"It doesn't matter whether you're on the left, right or centre of the party, whether you used to support me or hate me. But please understand the danger we are in."  

"If Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader ... It will mean rout, possibly annihilation."  

Corbyn, 66, is a veteran campaigner who has repeatedly voted against the Labour party line over his 32 years in parliament, supports scrapping nuclear weapons, and has never held a frontline ministerial position.    
Seen as the furthest left of the four candidates in the leadership, the softly-spoken former union official has packed out a series of speaking venues, taking many commentators by surprise and prompting newspapers to declare an outbreak of "Corbynmania".    

But more centrist Labour lawmakers and voters have expressed fear his policies are out of sync with the wider...